30 Photos of Modern-Day Chernobyl on the 30th Anniversary of the Disaster The accident remains the worst nuclear disaster in history.

On April 26, 1986, technicians at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, accidentally detonated one of its nuclear reactors when it suffered a dramatic power increase. Thirty-one people were killed in the initial blast, and countless others suffered radiation poisoning. The radiation was such that some workers on-site were hit with lethal levels within a minute. The material spread inexorably across the Europe and the then-Soviet Union, and toxic nuclear waste is still leaking from the disaster site to this day.

The area is still inhabited, and Chernobyl still employs workers. The first three reactors (only the fourth exploded) remain operational, though they’re undergoing a decades-long process of being decommissioned.

Sometime next year, a structure called the “New Safe Confinement” will be placed over the fourth reactor in an effort to contain the leaking radiation.

Here are 30 images from the plant today, the 30th anniversary of the accident.

With no one to hunt them or encroach on their habitat, wildlife thrives in Chernobyl.

A memorial for the “Liquidators”

Anatoliy Koliadyn, 66, was one of the “liquidators” — someone who tried to contain the radiation in the moments after the accident. He now suffers from a string of radiation-related illnesses.

The hospital of Pripyat is where the doomed firemen were brought after their efforts to extinguish the fire at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It is still one of the most contaminated buildings in the town. #chernobyl#tschernobyl